NAIROBI (Xinhua) -- Former Athletics Kenya (AK) vice-president David
Okeyo was banned for life from the sport on Wednesday and
ordered to pay 150,000 U.S. dollars in fines by the IAAF Ethics
Board.

The same panel
acquitted former AK Treasurer Joseph Kinyua of all charges
leveled against him, with the ruling case against suspended
chief executive officer Isaac Mwangi still pending.

Okeyo has been
ordered to pay the IAAF a cost award of 100,000 U.S. dollars and
the AK 50,000 U.S. dollars within 90 days.

Along with the late
AK president Isaiah Kiplagat, who died in 2016, Okeyo and Kinyua
were charged with diversion of federation funds from sponsors
Nike, and subverting the anti-doping process.

“Okeyo should be
expelled from his office as a member of the IAAF Council and
banned for life from taking or holding any office in the sport
or taking part in any Athletics-related activity. The Panel
imposes this ban with effect from the date of this decision,”
said the board.

“The Panel notes
that Okeyo has been found to have committed breaches of the Code
on ten occasions over a long period of time,” it added.

“Moreover, the
effect of his conduct was to deprive Athletics Kenya of income
from its sponsor that could have been better directed to support
the development of the sport of athletics in Kenya.

“In the view of the
Panel, the pattern of conduct warrants serious sanction to
establish the firm principle that federation officials must act
scrupulously and transparently in managing the finances of their
federations in order to protect the name and reputation of the
sport of athletics.”

The panel absolved
Kinyua of the first charge, since his previous office at AK does
not fall under the IAAF’s ethical guidelines.

“Although Kinyua has
been found to have engaged in similar conduct, because he was
not bound by the 2003 Code of Ethics he cannot be found to have
been in breach of that Code,” the judgment read.

The board said both
parties have the right to appeal against this decision to the
Court of Arbitration for Sport within 21 days of the date of
this decision.

.

UPDATE:

Banned Kenyan
athletics official lashes out at “selective justice”

NAIROBI (Xinhua) --Banned IAAF council member and former Athletics
Kenya (AK) vice-president David Okeyo has labelled the decision
to expel him from the sport for life as a “conspiracy against
Africans.”

The IAAF Ethics
Board convicted Okeyo of siphoning off money from the federation
as well as receiving bribes to vote for Qatar as the host of the
2019 IAAF World Championships. Okayo is going to challenge the
judgement at the the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Okeyo, who served as
AK vice-president until November 2016 when he was initially
suspended, was also slapped with a hefty 150,000-U.S.-dollar
fine in a judgement made public on Thursday.

The veteran
administrator further claimed that British national, Sebastian
Coe, is also not eligible to run the IAAF having been accused of
receiving bribes for the 2019 Qatar bid.

“It was all
fabrications geared toward removing me from AK and there is
nothing very special. In any case, do you think I was in a
position to withdraw money without authority? The money they are
saying I withdrew was under the authority of the late chairman
and the custodian of the accounts that was [Joseph] Kinyua. How
come I’m found to be bad and Kinyua is okay, did I steal the
checkbooks to go withdraw the money myself?” Okeyo said.

His co-accused in
the corruption charges and former federation treasurer, Joseph
Kinyua was acquitted while the case against the late AK
president, Isaiah Kiplagat, was terminated following his passing
in August 2016.

Okeyo then claimed
the fight against corruption at the top echelons of the IAAF had
taken a discriminatory approach against Africans, accusing Coe
who ascended to the helm of the organization on the platform of
reform, of being unfit for office.

“If anything, Coe
should not even be the president of IAAF going by what happened
in Qatar since he was chairman of that committee where they are
alleging members were bribed including him,” Okeyo charged.

He also complained
about the length of time it has taken to determine the case
brought before him by the Ethics Board.

Okeyo cited the case
of former IAAF Secretary General, Nick Davies, who was expelled
from the world body in January last year but was allowed to seek
employment elsewhere within the sport after being found guilty
of accepting 30,000 euros in bribes to delay naming Russian drug
cheats.

Okeyo who served as
the IAAF Cross Country Commission chairman until 2015 questioned
the huge fine slapped on him in the 74-page judgement.

“The judgement is
not clear; there are a lot of gaps. If you have banned me for
life, why are you fining me another 150,000 dollars?”

The case against
suspended AK CEO, Isaac Mwangi, who is separately charged with
soliciting bribes from athletes who have tested positive for
banned substances with a view of either clearing or reducing
their bans, is still being heard by the Ethics Board.